Assembling apparatus



Oct. 4, 1938. c. v. LUNDEEN ASSEMBLING APPARATUS Filed Dec; 19, 1936 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 llVI/E/V TOR C. V. LUIVDEEN A TTORA/EY Get. 4, 193B,

C.V.LUNDEEN 'ASSEMBLING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 19, 1936 FIG.

5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTUR C.V.LLUVDEI7V A TTORNE V c. v. LUNDEEN AS SEMBLING APPARATU S Filed Dec. 19, 1936 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 RN w MM V ww V. C

Patented Oct. 4, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,132,242 ASSEMBLING APPARATUS Application December 19, 1936, Serial No. 116,673

10 Claims.

v This invention relates to assembling apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for assembling electrical fuses.

There is a class of electrical fuse devices comprising a hollow body of electrically insulating and fireproof material within which is housed a wire or strand of relatively easily fusible electrically conductive material, such as an alloy of lead and tin, connected to conductive caps or terminals mounted on the exterior of the body. In one type of such devices the body may be a cylindrical tube of compressed fibre glass, ceramic material, molded plastic or the like through which a fusible metal strand is passed axially and connected to metal plugs in the ends of the tubes. v

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus, simple and durable in structure and rapid and reliable in operation, for pcsitioning a strand in one or more hollow bodies.

One embodiment of the invention contemplates an apparatus comprising one or more receptacles to contain supplies of axially perforated bodies, means to receive, orient and align the bodies in a predetermined position and direction, and means to propel a strand into position within the bodies, and which may also include means to sever the strands between members of a sequence of bodies and to lock the severed strand segments in place.

Other objects and features of the invention will clearly appear from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein the same reference numerals are applied to identical parts in the several figures and in which Fig. 1 is a broken diagrammatic view in front elevation of an apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a similar view on a larger scale of the upper portion of the left hand end of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a broken enlarged view in right hand end elevation of the apparatus of Fig. 1;

' Fig. 5 is a broken enlarged view of a detail to show the strand severing and locking means;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detached view in longitudinal section of a fuse body with a conductor being propelled therethrough;

Fig. '7 is a view analogous to Fig. 4 but showing a modified form of the invention, and

Fig. 8 is a fractional view on the line 8-8 of Fig. '7.

The embodiment of the invention'herein dis closed is particularly adapted for use in the manufacture of electrical fuse devices having a body such as is shown best in Fig. 6, comprising a cylindrical tube 20 of hard fibre or other suitable electrically insulating and fireproof ma- 5 terial. The tube is closed at each end by metal plugs 2|, 2| provided with coaxial outwardly extending threaded stems 22, 22 on which are metal washers 23, 23 and threaded nuts 24, 24. The plugs 2| are locked to the body 20 by pins 26. 10 Each of the stems 22 has an axial bore 25 for the reception of a fusible metal fuse wire 30.

Turning now to Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive, the apparatus (Fig. comprises at the right a plurality (here five) of identically similar units A, B, C, D 15 and E, and at the left a core strand propelling unit F. Units D and E only of the right hand group will be described in detail, the others being, as said, substantially identically similar. The number of units in the right hand group may of 20 course be anything from one up to the practicable limit. The machine as shown is hand operated and its capacity is limited by the strength of the operator. It will be obvious however in the ensuing description that a substitution of mechani- 25 cal motive power for hand power would be within the ability of any person fairly skilled in the art, whereby to increase the capacity of the apparatus.

Units D and E, as best shown in Figs. 1 and 4, 30 are mounted on the base 28 of the machine, here shown as a channel beam, laid horizontally, channel open downwardly. A frame 29 comprising such members, shown and not shown, as may be necessary, is mounted directly on the base 28 and 35 carries a hopper 3| at the top, adapted to receive and hold a plurality of the fuse bodies 20 with plugs, washers and nuts but as yet unprovided wit fuse wires 30. A shaft 32 journalled in the frame 29 passes horizontally through all the 40 units A to E inclusive. In each unit it carries, keyed thereto or otherwise rigid therewith, four suitably spaced, transverse, generally circular discs 33, 34, 35 and 36. The two outer disks,.33 and 36, are spaced apart to just receive the ends 45 of the plug stems 22 of a fuse body between them without binding. The two inner disks, 34 and 35, are spaced apart to receive and support the fuse bodies 20 near their extremities in suitable recesses or notches 38 cut radially at spaced inter- 50 vals into the peripheries of the discs 34 and 35. Discs 31, 31, identically like discs 33 and 36, are mounted outside the first disc 33 of unit A and the last disc 36 of unit E as shown.

The fuse bodies feed down in the hopper by 55 gravity as the shaft and its discs are indexed around, as hereinafter described, and the bodies drop one by one into the recesses 38 of the discs and are held thereby with the bores 25 of the body plugs 2!, 22 aligned with corresponding notches 39 in the peripheries of the discs 33, 36 and 31.

A presser member '40 is pivoted at 4| in the frame 29 and is urged against the fuse bodies held in the discs 34 and 35 by a suitable compression spring 42. This member 4|] serves to ensure that each fuse body is seated properly in the recesses 38, and that its passages or bores 25 are properly aligned with the notches 39.

Each neighboring pair of discs 33 and 36 of neighboring units, e. g., D and E, and discs 31 and 33 or 36 is preferably spaced apart by an auxiliary disc 48 of somewhat smaller diameter leaving a peripheral slot or groove 4| between the discs 33 and 36. or the three associated discs 36. 4|] and 33 (Fig. 5) may conveniently be made integral.

A strand cutting and locking tool 43 is rigidly mounted in the frame 29 between each two-units and also at the outside of each end unit A and E so that there is such a tool with its working end in each groove 4| at the location shown in 'Diametrically across the shaft 32 from the tool 43, a plug 44 is horizontally slidably mounted in the-frame 29 and in the plane of the disc 34 of unit D only. The end of the plug nearest the disc is formed to fit into the openings of therecesses 38 of the disc and to be cammed out of them by forcible rotation of the disc, the plug being yieldingly forced into the recesses by the compression spring 45. Thus the plug serves as a yielding stop to hold the shaft 32 in each position of its indexing motion.

A lever 46 is secured to the shaft 32 beside the disc 35 of unit D and has pivoted thereon 'a' ratchet 4! adapted to enter its free end into the recesses 38 of disc 35 under pressure of a tension spring 48 attached at one end to the ratchet and at the other end to the lever 46. The ratchet is formed at its free end to push the disc 35 and therewith the shaft 32 around in one direction (counterclockwise as seen in Fig. 4) and to cam out of a recess 38, when moved in the other direction, to drop into the next recess 38.

At its extreme outer end, the lever'46 has a link '49 pivoted thereto to be pivotable in the plane of the lever. A second link 50 pivotable in a plane at right angles thereto is pivoted to the link 49 above and below is pivoted with freedom to swing parallel to the lever 46 to a third link 5|. The link 5| in turn is pivoted on the outer end of a lever 52 whose inner end is rigidly secured to a shaft 53 mounted in the base 28 and extending out in front of the base where an operating hand lever 54 is rigidly secured thereon.

Between each pair of discs 34 and 35 and below the tools 43, is mounted a chute 55 whose upper and lower faces extend 'up between the discs 34 and 35 in such wise as to strip the finished fuses from their seats in the recesses 38 and lead them away to any suitable receptacle not shown. 7

The unit F comprises a track member 60, mounted on or being part of the frame 29 or base 28, and running generally parallel to the main axis of the apparatus. A horizontal slot 6| is formed in the front face to be coaxial with the recesses 38 and notches 39,when these are in their most frontward positions and are aligned below the sheaves H and I2.

. cated in dotted lines in Fig. 1.

with or lie with their axes just above the plane of the top surfaces of the tools 43.

A carriage 62 is mounted to ride along the raillike top of the member 60 and overhangs the rail both front and back. The front overhang 63 slides on the smooth front face of the rail as a guide and carries a split clamp 64 rigidly secured in place and also clamped together by screws 65, 65. This clamp extends into the slot 6|. The rear overhang 66 is provided with rollers 61 and 68 and means 69 such as jam screws to attach the carriage to a cable ID. The cable is endless and passes over an idler sheave H at the extreme left of the rail 60, over a second guide sheave T2 at the extreme right of the rail and over or once or more around a driving pulley 13 between and The shaft 14. on which the pulley "I3 is secured has also another pulley I5 rigid thereon. A belt 76 runs over the pulley 15 and a third pulley 16 on a shaft 11 which can be rotated by a hand crank 18. A series of resiliently pivotable keepers 19 may be pivoted on the front face of the rail 66 and extend across the open side of the slot 6|.

A long, slender straight needle 80 has its butt end secured in the clamp 64 and extends from the carriage 62 out to the right, in inactive position lying in the slot 6| entirely withdrawn from the units A to E. The right hand extremity of the needle 80 is formed with a hook 8| (Fig. 6) or other means of attachment to the end of the strand of fuse wire.

In operation the hoppers 3| of "all the units A to E are filled with a supply of wireless fuse bodies and the shaft 32 is indexed counterclockwise (Fig. 4) by means of the lever 54 three steps until the first filled recess 38 is in the extreme front position indicated at a: in Fig. 4. There are then. in the apparatus illustrated, five fuse bodies, one in each unit, all in exact alignment with each other, with corresponding notches 39 and with the needle 80, which latter thus has a clear path in front of it from end to end throughout the units A to E inclusive.

Lever 5| is then left stationary and crank 18 is turned clockwise (Fig. 1). This draws the carriage 52 to the right and so pushes the needle 80 on through the five fuse bodies until it protrudes beyond the last one at theright as indi- The end of a strand 30 of fuse wire is fastened to the hook 8|, being drawn from a supply thereof not shown. The crank 18 is then rotated in the reverse direction (counterclockwise in Fig. 1) which draws the needle 83 back into the groove BI and withdraws it from the units A to E- at the same time drawing a continuous length of the fuse wire '30 through all ten bores 25.

Preferably, stops 82 and 83 are mounted on the rail 60 to mark the ends of the proper reciprocato'ry motion of the carriage 62.

The lever 54 is then operated to index the shaft 32 one step. During this operation each length of fuse wire spanning a groove 4| is carried down against one of the tools 43 which breaks the wire between adjacent fuses and bends down or clinches the broken ends over the ends of the stems 22 as best shown in Fig. 5.

At the end of this one step advance of the shaft 32, the first set of five complete fuses, with their fuse wires locked in by being clinched over at the ends, is entering the several chutes 55 to be forced out of the discs 34 and on the next step and into the chutes to be carried away. Meantime a second set'o'f five empty bodies is in position to receive the needle and thereby the required fuse wire.

In a modified form illustrated in Figs. '7 and 8, the tools 43 are omitted, the discs 33 and 36 are formed as gears and idler pinions 84 are mounted in the frame 29 to mesh with these'gears. These parts are so dimensioned and disposed that the needle 85 or strand 30 during the threading operation passes between two of the teeth of disc 33 or 36 and a corresponding tooth of pinion 84 just about to enter the same space. Then when the shaft is next indexed, the wire 30 is carried down and is mashed flat by the gears just outside the ends of the stems 22. The parts are so proportioned that this action will mash out the wire to be too broad to pass through the bores 25. The parts may further be formed to cut away the short segment of wire left between the mashed portions and between the discs 33 and 36, or this may be knocked away and collected by a small chute and collector 85 located between these discs as the chute 55 is between the discs 34 and 35.

In either form of the apparatus, at each reciprocation of needle 85) and ensuing actuation of lever 56 five fuse bodies have fuse wire inserted therein and locked in place and the attendant has only to operate crank 13, attach wire to the needle 80, operate the crank and actuate the lever 54, all in cyclic repetition.

The embodiments herein disclosed are merely illustrative and may be modified and departed from in many ways Without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as pointed out I in and limited solely by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising a hopper to hold and deliver a plural ity of fuse bodies, a conveyor to receive a fuse body therefrom and to place the same in a predetermined location and orientation, and a reciprocatory needle to pass through the body in one direction and to be secured to a strand of fuse wire and to return through the body to draw the wire thereinto, in combination with a tool coacting with the conveyor to sever the Wire outside the body at either sidethereof and to deform the ends of the segment of wire in the body to lock the segment in place in the body.

2. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising a hopper to hold and deliver a plurality of fuse bodies, a conveyor to receive a fuse body therefrom and to place the same in a predetermined location and orientation, and a reciprocatory needle to pass through the body in one direction and to be secured to a strand of fuse wire and to return through the body to draw the wire thereinto, in combination with a tool coacting with the conveyor to sever the wire outside the body at either side thereof and to clinch over the ends of the segment of wire in the body to lock the segment in place in the body.

3. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising a hopper to hold and deliver a plurality of fuse bodies, a conveyor to receive a fuse body therefrom and to place the same in a predetermined location and orientation, and a reciprocatory needle to pass through the body in one direction and to be secured to a strand of fuse wire and to return through the body to draw the wire thereinto, in combination with a tool coacting with the conveyor to sever the wire outside the body at either side thereof and to flatten out the ends of the segment of wire in the body to lock the segment in place in the body.

4. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising a plurality of hoppers each serving to hold a supply of fuse bodies, a corresponding plurality of conveyors each to receive a fuse body from a corresponding hopper and to place the same in predetermined locations with common alignment and orientation, and a reciprocatory needle to pass through all of the aligned bodies in one direction and to be secured to a strand of fuse wire and to return through the aligned bodies to draw the wire thereinto, in combination with a plurality of tools coacting with the conveyors to sever the wire outside of each aligned body at either side thereof, and to deform the ends of each segment of wire to lock the segment in position in the corresponding body.

5. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising a plurality of hoppers each serving to hold a supply of fuse bodies, a corresponding plurality of conveyors each to receive a fuse body from a corresponding hopper and to place the same in predetermined locations with common alignment and orientation, and a reciprocatory needle to pass through all of the aligned bodies in one direction and to be secured to a strand of fuse wire and to return through the aligned bodies to draw the wire thereinto, in combination with a plurality of tools coacting with the conveyors to sever the wire outside of each aligned body at either side thereof, and to clinch the ends of each segment of wire to lock the segment in position in the corresponding body. I

6. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising a plurality of hoppers each serving to hold a supply of fuse bodies, a corresponding plurality of conveyors each to receive a fuse body from a corresponding hopper and to place the same in predetermined locations with common alignment and orientation, and a reciprocatory needle to pass through all of the aligned bodies in one direction and to be secured to a strand of fuse wire and to return through the aligned bodies to draw the wire thereinto, in combination with a plurality of tools coacting with the conveyors to sever the wire outside of each aligned body at either side thereof, and to flatten out the ends of each segment of wire to lock the segment in position in the corresponding body.

7. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising an aligned plurality of hoppers each serving to hold a supply of fuse bodies, a rotatable shaft parallel to the aligned hoppers, a pair of discs on the shaft corresponding to each 'hopper and having recesses therein to receive and hold a fuse body from the hopper, the discs being all rigidly secured to the shaft and having their respective recesses all in common alignment, a guide member in alignment with the recesses in one position of the shaft, a carriage reciprocable on the guide member, and a single needle carried by the carriage and passed thereby to and fro successively into and successively out of a plurality of fuse bodies held in the plurality of recesses when aligned with the guide member, the needle being formed to be secured to a strand of fuse wire.

8. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising an aligned plurality of hoppers each serving to hold a supply of fuse bodies, a rotatable shaft parallel to the aligned hoppers, a pair of discs on the shaft corresponding to each hopper and having recesses therein to receive and hold a fuse body from the hopper, the discs being all rigidly secured to the shaft and having their respective recesses all in common alignment, a guide member in alignment with the recesses in one position of the shaft, a carriage reciprocable on the guide member, and a single needle carried by the carriage and passed thereby to and fro successively into and successively out of a plurality of fuse bodies held in the plurality of recesses when aligned with the guide member, the needle being formed to be secured to a strand of fuse wire, in combination with a second pair of discs on the shaft to receive each body held in a first pair of discs and provided with apertures to pass the needle and the wire, and a stationary tool to coact with each of the discs of each second pair to sever the wire outside of' each aligned body at either side thereof.

9. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising an aligned plurality of hoppers each serving to hold a supply of fuse bodies, a rotatable shaft parallel to the aligned hoppers, a pair of discs on the shaft corresponding to each hopper and having recesses therein to receive and hold a fuse body from the hopper, the discs being all rigidly secured to the shaft and having their respective recesses all in common alignment, a guide member in alignment with the recesses in one position of the shaft, a carriage reciprocable on the guide member, and a single needle carried by the carriage and passed thereby to and fro successively into and successively out of a plurality of fuse bodies held in the plurality of recesses when aligned with the guide member, the needle being formedto be secured to a strand of fuse wire, in combination with a r second pair of discs on the shaft to receive each body held in a first pair of discs and provided with apertures to pass the needle and the wire, and a stationary tool to coact with each of the discs of each second pair to sever the wire outside of each aligned body at either sidethereof and to deform the ends of the segment of wire in each body to lock the segment in place in the body.

10. An apparatus for assembling electrical fuses, comprising an aligned plurality of hoppers each serving to hold a supply of fuse bodies, a rotatable shaft parallel to the aligned hoppers, a pair of discs on the shaft corresponding to each hopper and having recesses therein to receive and hold a fuse body from the hopper, the discs being all rigidly secured to the shaft and having their respective recesses all in common alignment, a' guide member in alignment with the recesses in one position of the shaft, a carriage reciprocable on the guide member, and a single needle carried by-the carriage and passed thereby to and fro successively into and successively out of a plurality of fuse bodies held in the plurality of recesses when aligned with the guide member, the'needle being formed to be secured to a strand of fuse wire, in combination with a second pair of discs on the shaft to receive each body held in a first pair of discs and provided with apertures to pass the needle and the wire, and a stationary tool to coact with each of the discs of each second pair to sever the wire outside of each aligned body at either side thereof and to clinch the ends of the segment of wire in each body to lock the segment in place in the body.

CARL V. LUNDEEN. 

